Shin Megami Tensei: Valde Ordo
by pizza blade
Summary: ..."For mortals vanished from the day's sweet light, I shed no tear; rather I mourn for those who day and night live in death's fear..." An original story based on the universe of Shin Megami Tensei. Accepting Original Characters.
1. Chapter 1

Below is a rather long opening rant, but I hope you will read it…

-I am not a native English language user so do not expect any impeccable grammar and vocabulary here. I do believe, however, that my English is at the very least in a respectable enough level for me to be able to successfully deliver what I want to say to the readers of my story.

-This is an original story inspired by Shin Megami Tensei series. Meaning, it will feature new characters, new plot, and new settings that are largely unrelated to any Shin Megami Tensei games available out there. However, it will feature many themes that will be easily recognizable by the fans of the games.

-**I am accepting input for new original characters from the readers of this story**, since I think it will be interesting to see how I can handle other people's characters in my story. Please include information such as their names, age, gender, physical description, personality, possibly their alignment—good or evil, plus the name of the Contract Demon (**not** **Persona**), and their preferred weapon. You can also add any additional information you can think of. You can give me the information either through your reviews or through PM (preferable) to me. You can propose more than one character, but please do note that **I have no obligation to accept any of your characters**. Still, you never know, your character may become one of the main characters for this story (not that it is a great achievement of life or anything, but yeah…)

-Reviews and feedbacks would be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

_Pizza Blade_

PS: Many of the location names here will be fictional, though you may be inclined to believe that it is in Japan (and I will try my best to make them Japan-like.) I apologize, but I'm not going to bother myself doing research about the names of actual towns and cities and locations of Japan—I'm doing this just for fun anyways. So, I would like your understanding to at the very least suspend your disbelief about this particular aspect of the story.

* * *

An original Fanfiction based on the popular Shin Megami Tensei game series

**Valde Ordo  
**

Chapter One: The Contract

_Written and Directed by Pizza Blade_

Special thanks to all of my readers and reviewers

* * *

Ryuhei Kamazaki stood alone inside the seemingly empty tunnel.

He looked around, trying to get a bearing on his surroundings.

It was very dark all around him—the darkness forbade his eyes to capture any vision for more than perhaps two or three meters away. From where he stood he could see the walls of the tunnel though, and what he saw there was quite surprising.

It was as if…

…

It was as if the tunnel itself was pulsating.

Breathing.

And through them he could see innumerable amount of thin transparent lines filled with reddish substances flowing inside them. He couldn't see the end or the beginning of those lines, and the way they looked appeared like they were some sort of blood veins of a living creature.

Perhaps the reddish substances inside those thin lines were _indeed _blood.

…

"…Huh," Ryuhei mumbled—he looked somewhat intrigued.

…

…But what is this place?

And how did he get here in the first place?

...The last thing he remembered was that he's inside the school bus along with his friends of his class on the way to some place as part as their School Study Tour (that he wasn't really interested in joining, actually.) He remembered how loud the people inside the bus was, which was the normalcy anyone would expect when all sorts of active teenagers were stuffed in together inside one vehicle.

There were people singing, joking, laughing… even flirting.

He didn't remember it too well, but it felt like the last thing he heard was some loud joke made by one of his guy friends which caused the entire bus erupt with laughter (though some of them merely sneered.) Then… it _seemed_ like all of a sudden he felt incredibly tired and sleepy, which was of course, strange, since he didn't do anything particularly strenuous before the trip and he always slept early in the nights.

…Yes.

The last thing he remembered was that he closed his eyes—he must have fallen asleep back on the bus.

…

…Then…

……Is this place a dream?

…Because no matter how, it seemed impossible that he was somehow moved from inside the bus to a place like this…, inside a very dark tunnel with walls eerily moving ever so slowly as if they were alive…

"_Hm_…" he thought, "_Perhaps this is a dream_."

He hesitated for a bit, before finally deciding to do one of those clichéd scenes on TV when a person was unsure whether he or she was inside a dream or not.

He pinched his own arm, hard.

He could feel the pain alright, and if what those scenes on TV said was true, he should be awake as soon as the pain registered in his brain.

But though his eyes were wide open, the place was still there, and he was still inside it. Nothing has changed except for a slight bit of stung on the spot where he pinched himself.

"Guess this isn't a dream then," he said to himself.

And…

Now that his eyes were a bit accustomed to the dimness of his surrounding, he could see more details about the area that he previously didn't notice—some were clearly more distracting _and_ disturbing than the others.

The floor were not made from the usual asphalt people usually used when building tunnels nor tiles that one would usually see on normal people's houses or buildings. No, they were made entirely by…

Actually, he didn't know _what_ they were made of. The floor were a bit squishy, and the bottom of his legs actually sank a little down inside the floor, like a heavy object being put on top of rubbery materials.

And just like the walls, Ryuhei could feel that the floor was moving up and down gently as well—like it was breathing softly. He could also see numerous long lines bulging slightly on the floor—he didn't know why, but the scene reminded him of a person's muscle.

…

But something was even more shocking. It was the fact that he just noticed that the floor was littered with what would appear to be remains and corpses of various creatures. He thought 'various' creatures because although it was clear that some of them were once humans (how did they ever get to a place like this?), the other remains were clearly… questionable. Maybe it was just because he had never been interested in Biology, but he couldn't imagine just what were those creatures before they turned up dead.

The remains evoked a rather pungent air in the atmosphere. Ryuhei wondered how it managed to escape his smell up until now, but perhaps he was too caught up in the weirdness of the situation before that he just did not notice it.

…He picked up his cell-phone from inside one of the pockets of the jacket he wore. He stared at the screen, and he wasn't entirely surprised to see the information stated clearly there: "No Service." He put the cell back to his pocket and turned his attention to the digital sport-watch he's wearing on his right wrist.

The date was January 9th, 2013—so at the very least he's still on the same day as when he journeyed with his friends on the bus. The time showed nine thirty A.M., and the seconds did not change—the watch has stopped working…, which means that the date could be wrong as well.

…

……

"…_Well_," he thought inside his mind as he ruffled with his hair a bit, "…_Guess I wouldn't find anything just standing here all day_. _Better move forward_."

But then he hesitated for a second, because which way would actually constitute 'forward'? He turned around, and just the same as the north side, the southern side was hardly visible as well, with the end of the tunnel obviously not in sight. There's no clear indication about which way he should go (not that he expected that there would be any in a weird place like this.)

He closed his eyes for a bit, thinking.

…

But then he thought thinking about it would be pretty useless anyways, so he decided to just go with what his gut told him and moved to the north.

To the north he began walking.

* * *

Ryuhei couldn't tell just for how long he had walked—one thing's for sure, his legs started to get rather sore.

It's not that he had walked very far, but it was pretty difficult to stay on balance when the floor was somewhat bouncy and with each step it was pushed downward by his weight. Plus for some reason it appeared like the farther he walked towards this direction the remains of various creatures scattered all around the floor were increasing significantly in number.

Maybe it was a sign that he chose the wrong direction, that something terribly dangerous might have been there at the end of this side of the tunnel… but he gritted his teeth and kept moving forward anyway. He didn't know whether the other direction was correct or not—in fact, he literally didn't know _anything_ so he figured one way or the other it wouldn't matter anyway. Who knows? Maybe he could get some answers about what kind of place is this and why, and _how_, he was here in the first place.

…As he penetrated deeper inside the dark tunnel, his body felt increasingly heavy—like someone affixed some heavy chains attached with iron balls to both his shoulders and ankles. Perhaps it was the increasingly pungent air evoked by the seemingly endless remains on the floor, but the atmosphere for some reason was increasingly pressuring as he kept walking.

The air around him just got heavier and heavier, and an increasingly greater an greater sense of foreboding pervaded both his head and mind with each step he took.

…

Ryuhei just kept walking…

…and walking……

…

!!!

He stopped.

He suddenly stopped. And for the first time since he's in this place, his face became tense and his mind was focusing intently. He stood guard, and his eyes gazed unblinkingly towards the darkness in front of him.

…

…_Something_… was there.

He could feel something was there. He didn't know what it was, but he could feel his skin went numb just because of the sheer sensation in the air—for some reason, he felt that he was standing right in front something both incredibly powerful and extraordinarily dangerous… Something that could make even the bravest of men turning around and run out of sheer terror. The pressure was extremely tense, and just the seemingly simple act of standing straight on his two feet required Ryuhei to summon his greatest will and determination.

If he could so choose, he would turn his body around and ran as fast and as far as his legs could carry him. Anywhere would do, as long as he was as far as possible from this incredibly overwhelming sensation.

…

But Ryuhei couldn't run.

No matter what his mind wanted him to do, his body refused to do it. Or to be more precise, his body wanted to comply, but just simply couldn't do it. It felt like his entire body went numb, paralyzed by fear. His heart was beating rapidly, and he could feel his entire clothing stuck to his skin because his entire body was sweating like crazy.

He kept staring at the darkness in front of him.

He kept staring at it, as if he was expecting something to come out of it any time. As if he was expecting that the darkness itself would somehow say something to him, to answer some questions he has hanging inside his head.

…

……

"…**So**......"

Ryuhei almost jumped out of sheer surprise. Suddenly he could feel a voice spoke out quite audibly. What shocked him the most was the sensation of how _close_ the voice was—it was literally like someone was standing right behind him and said something directly into his ear.

He reflexively whirled his body around, but nobody was around.

He's still alone.

…

"…**I never would have expected that a creature such as yourself**…" the voice suddenly spoke out again, "…**A mere **_**mortal**_… **was actually able to enter this Realm without My permission**…"

…

Ryuhei whirled his body around once more, but again—he was still all alone inside the dark tunnel. The voice felt so eerily close and although it spoke with a human voice, there's certain… unexplainable quality about it that immediately notified Ryuhei that the owner of the voice was anything _but _human. _Something _inside the voice was a sign of a… of a _Being_ commanding unimaginable power and presence.

He had always been a person never terrified by anything in his life, and many of his friends even often commented about his seemingly unearthly ability to be able to be unfazed even in front of the most shocking and terrifying of things. But right now he felt scared.

He was terrified.

It was like he was in the presence of something so immensely big, so immensely powerful, that in front of… _it_… he was nothing more than an incredibly insignificant bug standing in front of…

…of God…

…

……

Then, suddenly, out from the darkness in front of him,

_Something appeared_.

Ryuhei froze.

Not that he's already paralyzed from the overwhelming sensation already, but this time what he saw in front of him was definitely something that incredibly shocking, he couldn't even feel his entire body anymore. His heart was beating so fast it was like a pumping machine just waiting to explode.

_Something _suddenly walked in from the darkness in front of him.

…

"…_w_…_what_…" he said shakily in his mind, "…_is that_…? _A_… _a young girl_…?"

He thought that it was a young girl because it _has_ the shape of a young girl. But it just couldn't possibly a normal young girl. It couldn't even possibly be a _human_.

Because it was clearly not a human. There were no eyes, no nose, no mouth, no ears: what stood in front of him perhaps could best be described as a very bright silhouette in the form of a young human girl. A silhouette that appeared completely like a full blown human being.

Ryuhei must forced himself to squint because the light emanating from the… from the _creature_ in front of him was very blinding—all the more so because his eyes were already accustomed to the darkness of the tunnel.

…Ryuhei couldn't move.

He couldn't blink. He couldn't even feel his own breathing.

…

The bright silhouette moved forward, taking a step closer towards him.

Suddenly, a voice spoke out,

"…**Very impressive**," the voice said—Ryuhei's first instinct was the voice came from the silhouette, although it was clearly not a voice of a young girl. In fact, he didn't know _what_ voice was it and how in hell did he manage to understand it, "**The presence of an Everlasting is usually more than enough to break even the toughest of the Mortal Kin, and yet you somehow still manage to stand on your own two feet**.**"**

The silhouette moved forward again, now only around three to four steps away from Ryuhei.

"…**Although your fear is displayed with such clarity I can sense it without even opening My Eye**…" the voice said again, "…**In any case, you are one very interesting Human, no doubt**," it was then apparently giving out a small chilling chuckle, "**The way you entered My Realm and how you managed to keep your consciousness even in this place where no Mortal is intended to pass**......"

Again, the silhouette took a step forward. But something inexplicable happened. The silhouette suddenly wriggled like crazy, like it was a doll and someone was pulling its strings from all different directions at the same time.

It was shaking for about three more seconds, before all of a sudden _it grew_. It grew, and took a form of _something else_—this time, it was transforming into a silhouette of apparently a grown woman that was about as tall as Ryuhei.

Ryuhei watched the transformation unblinkingly, his mind couldn't comprehend what the hell's going on. If there's one thing he knew instinctively, was that he's currently in incredible danger and his fate was completely in the hands of the creature in front of him.

…

"**Perhaps you were sent here by Him**…" the voice spoke out once more, "**For a Great Being that is Most Divine and Powerful, He certainly has a preference to play games**……"

The woman now stood face by face with Ryuhei, and sight of her from up close was so bright and dizzying it took Ryuhei's his entire will and more to keep himself from collapsing.

"**Regardless**, **it seems that The Grand Ordeal has begun**," the voice said, "**And since you are here, Ryuhei Kamazaki, I will bestow my Will upon you…**"

Ryuhei didn't even think about how the voice knew his name and about everything else it said because he was completely distracted by the sight of the woman in front of him raising her right hand until it was level with his temple.

…

"**And as such**..." the voice said in almost amused tone, "**The Contract between an Everlasting and a Mortal for the Grand Ordeal will be made**."

The woman touched her bright index finger on Ryuhei's temple.

Suddenly Ryuhei could sense an extremely powerful force streaming inside his body—a sensation so unbelievably strong he felt like his entire organs were destroyed instantly. The pain was extraordinarily exquisite, and for the first time since he's here Ryuhei let out a scream that would tore out his entire vocal chord. It was a pain even worse than death.

…

Ryuhei couldn't stand it anymore.

The last thing his eyes caught was the sight of a wide _grin_ appearing on the woman's silhouette face as his body fell onto the floor and his consciousness left him entirely.

* * *

…

"…san……"

…

"Ryu…… san…"

……

"Ryuhei-san…"

………

"…Ryuhei-san!"

Ryuhei was jerking as he abruptly opened his eyes.

He didn't immediately realize the place he's in right now—in fact, he didn't immediately realize anything at all. His heart was thumping, his face was sweating, and his eyes were fuzzy.

He could feel a very sharp pain in his head, a sensation so powerful he had to grit his teeth together in order to reduce its effects.

…

It took some time, but he finally managed to regain his composure. His heartbeat was normalizing, and he could begin to focus again.

And then, he suddenly realized that he was being watched by someone. No—correction, not just someone, but _a lot _of people were watching him.

He glided his eyes towards his left side, and there he could see around five to six people were staring at him with a mix of worried and confused look on their faces. They were his classmates, and when he cast his eyes around he found—to his immense relief—that he's inside the school bus, on a journey of a School Study Tour.

He was drown with such a relief that he didn't really pay any attention to the fact that practically all people inside the bus except the driver was staring at him. Even the driver seemed very tempted to just look around at him since the street was empty anyways.

…

"Hey man," said one of the students watching Ryuhei from the seat in front of him, "…Are you okay?"

"…" Ryuhei didn't answer—he's still in the middle of gathering his thoughts, and his head was a little fuzzy.

"Ryuhei-san," said the girl sitting right besides him right now—apparently, she was the person that awoke him earlier, "…You suddenly screamed like something happened. A… are you okay? Are you alright…?"

Ryuhei turned his attention towards her.

…Perhaps it was a very silly thought to had, but he was very glad that he could still recognize her. He could also still recognize all the names of all the people staring at him right now. For some strange reason, he feared that one way or another he had forgotten them all.

…

"Yeah…" Ryuhei muttered, "I'm alright."

The girl looked relieved, and at closer inspection her face was sweating from worry as well—perhaps even more so compared to Ryuhei.

"But what's that all about when you suddenly screamed like a madman?" a student standing in the aisle asked curiously, a student Ryuhei still remembered as Kenji Sanahada. He remembered that he's sitting next to him when the bus first took off—why did he stand on the aisle right now? "We were all laughing and joking and you were sleeping and suddenly you're screaming like the world's about to end! And you're sweating like crazy too, man!"

"Yeah," said another student leaning from behind Ryuhei's seat, "Look at poor Yumi—she was practically blitzing her way towards you with a face as white as a ghost!"

Kanehada Yumi's face quickly went shades of red, though she didn't say anything to deny the allegation.

"Were you having a nightmare, dude?" Kenji asked again.

…

……_A nightmare_……?

…

Ryuhei nodded as he wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand.

"Yeah," he said, "A nightmare."

"About what?" Kenji pressed on.

"Oy Kenji! Quit bothering him!" someone from behind the bus yelled, while some of the students inside the bus began to chat with each other, occasionally pointing at Ryuhei and giggling for whatever reason.

"Oh shush!" Kenji dismissively waved his hand, "I'm curious to know what kind of thing that could send our boy Ryuhei here screaming like that!"

Ryuhei didn't say anything for a while.

…

A nightmare…?

…Was it all really just a nightmare?

Perhaps he was just too tired before this trip started, although he didn't remember doing anything particularly strenuous before… But maybe it was _indeed_ just a nightmare… Just some silly jokes his brain conjured when he's asleep…

How else could he explain moving from his Study Tour bus to an extremely alien place filled with corpses and strange creatures and now returning to the bus again as if nothing has happened?

…

"It's nothing," Ryuhei said again, "…Just a dream about ghosts," he said the first thing that came up from his mind.

Laughter quickly erupted inside the bus—almost everyone apparently felt amused that the reason behind Ryuhei's scream was just a silly nightmare about ghosts.

Kenji looked slightly disappointed, though it was clear that he thought Ryuhei's answer was amusing too.

The students surrounding Ryuhei dispersed and each returned to their own seats. It didn't take long for the bus to be filled with sound of chatter and laughter and inappropriate jokes again—the situation quickly returned to normal, like nothing ever happened whatsoever.

…

"Hey, Yumi, switch place again," Kenji tugged Yumi's sleeves—of all the students inside the bus, it seemed like she's the only one that did not appear to be completely convinced by Ryuhei's explanation. She still looked at him with a somewhat worried expression on her face. "I want to sit in my seat again—your place filled with so many girls gossiping it's hurting my ears."

Yumi glanced towards Kenji with an annoyed look on her face.

"Oh fine," she grumbled as she stood up and walked towards the back of the bus, where she was greeted by a host of girls looking eager to hear whatever she's about to say.

Kenji sat down on the seat beside Ryuhei.

"Hey," Kenji stole a quick look towards Yumi as he tapped Ryuhei's shoulder, "She likes you, you know. When you fell asleep, she asked me to switch place with her so that she could greet you the moment you're awake. Never seen her so nervous like that trying to strike a conversation with a guy before. Never seen her looked so worried also when you screamed before—her face literally looked like a ghost. Anyway, she was apparently trying to give you some food she made herself… you lucky bastard you. I wonder what she sees in you!"

Kenji laughed.

"But you just _had_ to scream like a madman like that," he continued, "Poor girl, her plans all ruined because people would surely pay attention to you so no private moments between you two… _Hey_!"

He just realized that Ryuhei didn't pay any attention to him whatsoever. Instead, he was just staring somewhat blankly at his own knees, his mind seemed to be elsewhere entirely.

Kenji just sighed.

"Hhhh…" he said, "You're hopeless man."

He stood up and walked towards Yumi's location (which understandably looked _more _annoyed since he had the gall to actually come there when he so casually dismissed her before), leaving Ryuhei alone with his own thoughts.

…

"…_A nightmare, huh_…" Ryuhei muttered inside his thoughts.

"……"

…

-Bip- -Bip- -Bip-

Suddenly his Cell-phone made a sound of incoming message—Ryuhei was surprised by it because he forgot he still had it inside the pocket of his pants.

He calmed himself down and took it from his pocket.

It was an incoming message alright.

He opened it, and what was written there surprised him.

…

"The Contract has Been Made.

Be Forewarned that the Grand Ordeal is Near.

Congratulations! You now have the chance to ChOOSE Between Living a cursed life or dying a cursed death.

Just be Patient, Perhaps everything will be okay in the end. Perhaps.

**-The Originator.**"

**-To be Continued-**


	2. Chapter 2

-Thank you very much for the reviews posted by Hidro the Lost one, mangafreak7793, Mavrik Zero, and Not Jack Frost. Also thanks for the Original Characters suggested by Hidro the lost one and mangafreak7793; on this chapter, their OCs are making their first grand appearances in my story. See if you can guess which one belongs to whom :)

-I have contemplated to change the rating of this story from T to M, since there are going to be some scenes depicted here that may give a shock to young readers. But then again I suppose all the rating system stuff is pretty useless all and all—who can really stop a 7 years old from making his way reading an R rated story? Take this as a warning though, that this story is most definitely **not** going to be all flowers and rainbows.

-Opinions and feedbacks would be most appreciated.

Best Regards,

**Pizza Blade **

**

* * *

**

An original Fan-fiction based on the popular Shin Megami Tensei game series

**Valde Ordo**

Chapter Two: Mass Murder

_Written and Directed by Pizza Blade_

Special thanks to all of my readers and reviewers

* * *

The wheels of the bus screeched as the vehicle gradually stopped on a vacant parking spot. The curious faces of the students inside the bus could be seen popping from the windows, some looked somewhat pessimistic although quite a lot of them seemed more enthusiastic.

Ryuhei was amongst the rarest of the kind—he didn't even seem interested to look at their destination. Clearly, what happened earlier to him disturbed him even more, because he just kept staring towards his Cell-phone, to the uncharacteristic message he received from a mysterious source before.

He probably didn't even realize that they have arrived.

…

The place the students in right now was quite nice, at least scenery-wise, and from the looks of it, it was some sort of a small, exotic town. It was located quite high up in the mountains, and though the road leading there was already good enough to accommodate a large bus like the one they're using, apparently the town itself offered nothing special.

In fact, strangely, none of the students inside the bus could see anyone wandering outside on the streets. It was like the town was already abandoned a long time ago, with many of the buildings already looked run-down and in shambles. Upon closer inspection, the bus itself was parked not on a real parking lot per se, but more of an empty field that no one used anymore.

It was definitely quite an unorthodox place to have a class Study Tour, and it was reflected by the puzzlement on many of the students' faces.

…

……

"Hey, class rep!" someone yelled out, "Where's Yamada-Sensei? He's supposed to pick us up, right?"

"Quiet!" a girl replied—she took out her own Cell-phone from her bag, "I'm going to call hi…"

Her Cell suddenly rang, and her eyes glimmered as she saw the name listed on the screen.

"Oh hey look!" she announced to her friends, "Yamada-Sensei sent me a text. He said to just go down from the bus and wait there—he'll come soon to pick us up. He needs to do something first."

"Do something first what and where?" Ryuhei could hear Kenji muttered grimly—unlike Ryuhei, he was busy scanning the area from behind the bus windows the moment they arrived, "This place's like a ghost town. Can't believe there's still a place like this in Japan……"

"Alright you guys!" the class rep stood up and clapped, "Pack up and get ready!"

The bus was then buzzing with students getting ready with their belongings and the like.

Ryuhei—who could no longer ignore the situation—gave one final look to the screen of his Cell-phone and decided that perhaps… just perhaps…, it was all just a prank message from someone who didn't know better on how to waste their time. Just a useless spam.

He deleted it, and tucked the Cell-phone on his pocket. He then joined the rest of his classmates getting off from the bus.

* * *

The students were standing on the side of the bus right now, all waiting the arrivals of the person that was supposed to pick them up. Some students seemed puzzled about the place they're in right now, although most did not appear to have any second thoughts about it as they were keep chatting animatedly with each other like there's nothing to be worried about.

One or two students even tried to engage a conversation with the bus driver, trying to get a clue about the place. The answer they got was apparently unsatisfactorily, though, because it seemed like the driver himself didn't quite know about this seemingly abandoned small town. All he did was to follow directions given to him by the client, which was of course, the class' very own homeroom teacher himself, Mr. Yamada Hidetoshi.

…

……

"H…hey, Ryuhei-san," Yumi was edging closer towards Ryuhei, leaving a bunch of giggling girls busy whispering to each other and pointing towards her, "You… feeling alright?"

"Yeah," Ryuhei answered somewhat absent-mindedly.

He was scanning the area they're in right now.

What a strange place. It seemed like a nice enough small town, but there's practically _no one_ around that could be seen. Kenji was right—it was like a ghost town. For whatever reason their homeroom teacher Yamada-sensei arranged a class Study Tour on a strange place such as this?

"…Oh, that's good," Yumi muttered almost inaudibly. She apparently noticed that Ryuhei wasn't really paying attention to her because her face looked a bit disappointed, but nevertheless she kept trying, "……Um, what a strange place this is, huh? I… I wonder why Yamada-Sensei picked this place for our Study Tour…"

Ryuhei turned his face towards her.

"I was just thinking the same thing, actually," he said matter-of-factly, "…What's with this place anyway? It's not the kind of place that you would usually go on a Study Tour…"

"I… I know, right!" Yumi said enthusiastically—she seemed terribly relieved that her efforts trying to converse with Ryuhei was apparently about to pay dividends, "It's so weird! And back then in class he said that we would need to spend a night on the Study Tour right? So that means we have to stay in a place like _this_……?"

Perhaps she was a bit more enthusiastic than she's supposed to be.

"And where is he anyway?" she continued, "He's supposed to pick us up but he's nowhere to be seen!"

The two was soon engaged on a rather involved conversation with one another, just like the other students who couldn't figure out what to do while waiting for their teacher.

…

It kept going on for about five-six minutes, before someone from the class suddenly yelled,

"Hey look! It's Yamada-Sensei!"

All faces turned to see, and just like that student said, an adult around the age of thirty came running towards them. It was Yamada Hidetoshi, although his current attire of casual bright yellow shirt combined with green khaki pants and sandals was not actually very teacher-like.

All the students looked relieved to see him finally coming—all save perhaps one, Yumi, who looked kind of disappointed that she was forced to end her conversation with Ryuhei earlier than expected.

…

……

"Aiyyyyee," Yamada said as he arrived in front of the class—he was somewhat sweaty and now he's panting, "Sorry for the wait, guys! I've got something to taken care of first. Took me longer than I expected…"

"Sensei!" one of the students raised her hand, "…Are we really going to do our Study Tour _here_? What _is _this place anyways? So weird!"

Many of the students nodded in agreement, and most of them looked eager to get some answers from their teacher.

Yamada panted again for about five seconds, before answering,

"Ahehehe, well…" he smiled, "I figured all of you would be bored if we do our Study Tour like going to a museum or something… So I arranged for something more adventurous and neat. Don't worry, it'll be great fun!"

"Yeah, but what _is _this place?" the same student asked again—just like many of her friends, her face clearly shown that she wasn't entirely sure that she's about to have a 'great fun' here, "…An abandoned town of some sort?"

Yamada waved his index finger.

"Just wait," he grinned, "I have some very nice surprises prepared for you guys. Trust me—you have never experienced this kind of thing before during your entire life."

He walked towards the bus driver, saying something like 'go pick us up again tomorrow afternoon' while slipping the guy with a good amount of money. The driver mumbled something inaudible before he started the engine again.

When Yamada got down from the bus, the vehicle started to move backwards and then began to leave the 'parking lot'. It didn't take a lot of time before the bus finally disappeared from the eyes of the students, all of whom watching its disappearance with a somewhat apprehensive look on their faces.

…

"Alright!" Yamada clapped his hands, "Let's go."

He began walking towards a direction, and the students all started to walk behind him.

Ryuhei adjusted the bag he carried on his back before he followed the entourage.

…

!

But all of a sudden, his eyes caught something that made him momentarily stopped.

He saw _someone_.

Standing in front of a building located at the far side of the place he's in right now. _Looking _at the group of the students.

_Smiling_ at them.

He couldn't see the person very clearly, but it seemed like a young man about his age wearing a black shirt with blue pants. The only other details Ryuhei could ascertain was he had a somewhat grayish medium-sized hair, but that was all.

The person appeared all of a sudden Ryuhei was seemed a bit taken aback by it—even more so from they he's staring towards him and his classmates.

…

"Ryuhei-san?"

Ryuhei turned his attention towards Yumi, who was now staring at him questioningly.

"What are you doing?" she said, "Come on, let's go follow Yamada-sensei."

"Yeah…" Ryuhei said, "But there's……"

When he looked again, however, the man was gone.

* * *

"Woaaaahh…"

"Woww…"

"…My God……"

"……What the…Wowza…"

…

Those were the reaction of every students as they entered into a place Yamada led them to.

It was an uncharacteristically huge mansion… perhaps it's even more appropriate to call it a _castle_ instead of a mansion, because the sheer size of it was just simply unbelievable. It was just simply unimaginable how much money a person would have to spend to build a structure like this. A very strange existence in a seemingly abandoned small town with nothing but shambled and run-down buildings around.

The amazement was as such that for a while the fact that the town was empty disappeared from everybody's minds. They're now inside the front part of the mansion. The place was very neatly arranged and very clean, and it was truly a marvel: expensive looking paintings adorning the walls, exquisite looking furniture were everywhere, everywhere was littered with things most people couldn't even begin to dream of buying. There were two grand-looking stairs heading to the second floor one in the left and one in the right side of the room, and the railings were sparkling like they were made with pure gold (maybe it _was _pure gold.)

However, the most attention-grabbing of all was definitely the one-thing that was smacked right onto the students' faces the moment they entered the mansion.

It was a rather big statue put right at the center of the room, a statue that was put directly in front of the mansion's front door. It was a bizarre statue, picturing a man without a face writhing in pain and a tall demonic-like figure standing right in front of him with its hands crossed in front; like a torturer making fun of the one getting tortured.

On the bottom of the statue a sentence was carved, with each word of it beginning with a capital letter:

"**A Demon Who Was Once A Part Of Man**

**Now Conquers The Man**"

It was most definitely a strange, and to some extent—also grotesque, sight, although that didn't stop a lot of students of saying to each other what a _cool _statue it was.

Ryuhei—for some reason—could not tear off his eyes from the statue the moment his eyes caught the sight of it. He couldn't really explain it, but he felt a strange fascination about it, a fascination that went beyond just thinking the statue was cool or anything like that… there's just something about the statue that fully attracted his attention, like it evoked some sort of a nostalgic feeling…

…Wait, what?

……_Nostalgic_?

…

"Ugh," he put his hand on his forehead as he felt dizzy for a second. It quickly dissipated, though, and he hastily dispersed the idea that he was feeling _nostalgic_ about the image the statue portrayed.

It's impossible, because he would _surely_ remember the sight of a statue _that _unique if he had seen it before, and he had _never _seen a statue like that before. Not even in the magazine, TV, Internet, or anywhere else.

"Well, what do you guys think?" Yamada whirled around to look at his students—he looked mightily satisfied with the sight of astonishments so clearly visible on the faces of his students, "Pretty fancy huh?"

"What _is _this place, Sensei?" an astonished student raised a question, "_Whose_ place is this?"

"Well, first something that you should know," Yamada smiled, "For today, all of you will spend a night here."

"WHAAAT?" Kenji yelled out—he looked very shocked, "You SERIOUS? We get to spend a night at a place _like this_?"

A buzz of excitement now permeated the atmosphere. A lot of the students even looked like this was the best thing that ever happened in their lives. Except for Ryuhei who for some reason appeared somewhat apprehensive, the faces of all the students showed a great sense of enthusiasm mixed with anticipation.

He just couldn't find it in himself that everything was normal. Too many questions that needed to be asked.

…

Ryuhei raised his hand.

"Excuse me," he said, "But what _is_ this place anyway? And what's wrong with the town? Where's everybody else?" he decided to just forego the fact that he saw someone else before, for now, "And what about our Study Tour? What are we going to _study_? And how come we can stay in a place like this?"

"That's quite a lot of questions, don't you think?"

Ryuhei and the others were surprised by the sudden answer spoken by a mysterious voice.

He and his classmates quickly scanned the area to see the source, and it didn't take long for them to find where.

They could see two people standing on the second floor, both staring down at them, one of them smiling. The two people then walked a bit to the stairs on the left and came down from the second floor using it, both moving on a seemingly deliberate pace.

…

One of the two people was a young woman, probably about their age—perhaps just a bit older by one or two years maximum. She was a person with a slightly pale-looking skin with blue eyes and a bizarrely enchanting silver hair that reaches midway on her back. She wore a black t-shirt combined with black military type cargo pants combined with boots. Ryuhei could also see a pair of unusual-looking bracelets on both her wrists, and a belt wrapped around her waist holding bottles of various sizes containing various types of weird-looking substances.

Overall, her style was really something Ryuhei had never seen a person doing it before.

The other person walking behind her was a young man around the same age. He has a short brown hair with blue eyes, and wore a white long sleeved shirt plus a thin light jacket combined with a blue-colored jeans. His style was a bit usual compared to his company, but nevertheless there's something somewhat unusual about the way he carried himself too. The way he walked behind the woman seemed to be very carefully gesticulated so that he wouldn't accidentally bump into her or anything, and once or twice he stole a glance towards her even though most of the time for some reason he's always staring at his own two feet.

…

"Woah, who is _that_? Feels familiar for some reason…"

"Wow, check out that outfit!"

"Dude, _she's gorgeous_!"

Whispers circulated amongst the students as the new guests continued to walking down the grand stairs.

"Hmm…" Ryuhei could hear Yumi muttered something beside him, "… I think I've seen her somewhere before…"

He felt the same way with Yumi—that he thought that he had seen her somewhere before, though he didn't have time to ask her because at that exact moment the young woman and her friend arrived in front of the class, and when she did, her eyes were staring fixatedly at him in such a way that for some reason he couldn't find himself turning away from her.

"Ah, yes, well," Yamada seemed apologetic as he ruffled his hair, "Okay, Kamazaki. At first I am planning to explain everything to all of you all by myself, but since the Master of the mansion herself is here, well, I'll explain things up now with her help."

He contemplated things for a second, before continuing,

"Hmm, well, I should start with this I suppose," he said, "To those of you who are consistently following the news around you, or at least having some decency to read a _real _newspaper instead of gossip tabloids," he chuckled, "I shouldn't have to introduce her to you since she's been mentioned there for quite a couple of times. But since nearly all of you are gossip lovers; well, may I introduce you to the one and only, Ms. Shion Aozaki—the protégé of the Aozaki Corporation, one of the biggest and most influential company in Japan."

* * *

A lot of students were, quite literally, get a shock of their life.

Nobody couldn't hide their surprise, and this time, not even Ryuhei.

And that was all because of a very good reason. Because most probably there wasn't a single soul in the entire country that didn't know the existence of Aozaki Corporation. Just like Yamada said, it was one of the biggest—if not _the_ biggest—companies in Japan, dealing with various kinds of business ventures such as electronics, infrastructures, hospitality, entertainment, pharmaceutical, and even transportation. In fact, they were so huge and practically everywhere on _everything _that dissenting voices about their being monopolizing the competition were often heard—to no avail, however, since it was no longer a secret that a company that humongous would hold an extremely tight influence over the government (and they paid very good money too.)

Everything that ever happened to that company, even if it's something seemingly unimportant, would become news in an instant. And that's how Ryuhei remembered why he felt like he had actually seen the mysterious young woman before. He couldn't pinpoint it exactly when and where, but he vaguely remembered that he once saw a news on television that the owner—due to his ailing health—has secretly trained his descendant to someday taking care of the company once he's gone since he no longer has any relative and his wife died a long time ago due to some accident. Such was the power and influence of the Aozaki Corporation that for quite some time not even the sternest of media was able to get a hold any piece of information about this 'descendant.' Was it a boy? Was it a girl?

Somehow, however, the information was leaked, and the news was everywhere that the descendant of the owner was, in fact, a young girl. The media went crazy about this, of course, since it would mean that in the future the fate of one of the biggest companies in Japan would be decided on the hands of a woman. The news was big, if he was not mistaken, though it happened so many years ago that most probably back then the only thing that he could really care of as a child was when the next Dragon Quest game would come out.

Ryuhei vaguely remembered that he once saw a picture of her in some television not too long ago however, on a some sort of secret investigation show or something like that. He didn't remember it well because back then he was distracted by the coming of a difficult test in school, and also the fact that he just saw the show only for a short while before turning back to those cursed physics and mathematical equations.

But it was her.

No doubt about it now.

"Ah!" Yumi seemed to have the same revelation as him, "That's right! I saw her on a TV show about two weeks ago! About the profile of the future young rich people of Japan! She's the only daughter of the owner of the Aozaki Corporation!"

"Yes, well," Shion turned her attention towards her, smiling, "That TV crew was quite crafty all right. The fact that they were able to make a show like that even without my permission was quite impressive."

Yumi suddenly realized that she just announced her realization a bit too loud, and now her face was filled with shades of pink.

A buzz of excitement was so prevalent hanging in the air right now amongst the students. All eyes were fixated solely on Shion that no one hardly paid any attention to the meek-looking young man behind her and Yamada anymore.

…

……

"Yes, my name is Shion Aozaki," Shion said casually, "And yes, I am the only daughter of the Aozaki Corporation's current owner, Mitsuhiro Aozaki. And also yes, I am currently in training by my father to take over the business someday in the future, though right now I am merely sitting as one of the executive members in one of father's companies."

The students seemed not able to tear their eyes off from her for even a second, their attention was already fully captivated and ensnared by her aura. Perhaps it's because they realized that she's about the same age as them, most probably only one or two years older, but the difference between her and them was so startling it was even farther away than just heaven and earth. They were completely dumbfounded by the fact that even at such young age she was already sitting as an executive member of a company, and soon after would be the owner of an extremely powerful corporation.

"Hey you guys," Yamada waved his hands in front of the mesmerized students, "I'm still your teacher, you know. You'd all better still paying attention to me also."

He laughed.

"…But yeah, I can totally understand how you all feel," he said, "Pretty amazing huh? I've told you that this Study Tour is going to be pretty awesome, right? Well, not so many people in this world have the privilege of actually meeting her face to face like this, you know—not even those claiming themselves as powerful figures in the government or whatever. You all are very, very lucky."

"You make me sound like I'm some sort of a Goddess or something, Yamada-san," Shion shook her head, "You're just exaggerating. I am still just an ordinary high-school student like them, after all."

The two proceeded to have small talks, with occasional laughter here and there. Ryuhei felt strange that an ordinary high-school teacher like Yamada-Sensei would actually able to not only personally know a very important figure like Shion, but also seemed to be able to talk to her in such a casual and friendly manner. A sentiment that, apparently, crossing not just only his mind because Kenji raised his hand,

"'Scuse me!" he said, "But how… uh…" he looked somewhat hesitant, "…How can you know a person like… uh… like Ms. Aozaki here, Sensei?"

"Wow, that is quite a blunt question. What, am I not allowed to know famous people?" Yamada laughed again, making Kenji immediately lowered his hand, "Hahaha. It's okay, though, I understand where are you coming from."

He coughed.

"Well," he said, "You guys might find this hard to believe, but her father and I went a long while back. Actually, he's one of my childhood friends," for some reason he looked pleased with himself, "We were best buddies back then, and we were always together up until middle-school when we finally parted ways. I began pursuing the career as a teacher, but he pursued the career of a businessman. Turned out he's quite successful with his choice, hahaha."

"Yes," Shion said affirmatively because it seemed like most of the students still having a hard time to believe Yamada's story, "My father and Yamada-san was… well, _is_, close friends. Of course, the media doesn't know about this, but my father always keep in touch with Yamada-san regularly. Sometimes he got invited on our company events too."

"Woaah, Sensei," said one of the female students, "You're kind of cool!"

Yamada just grinned widely.

"So, what's the deal with the Study Tour?" Ryuhei asked again—though he was also somewhat stunned being able to meet with such an important character out of the blue, for some strange reason he couldn't find himself really captivated by Shion's persona. There's something about her that seemed… _off_, "…And what's the deal about this place? How come there's no one around in this town?"

Shion turned her attention to him.

She looked mildly interested towards Ryuhei, perhaps because he wasn't staring at her with drools hanging down from his mouth like the other boys in the room.

"It was Yamada-san's suggestion," she said, "And since I'm not busy doing anything _yet_, I decided to indulge his request since, as you can probably imagine, I never had a lot of opportunity to fraternize with young folks around my age. In any case…"

She glanced towards the young man standing behind her, the one that has not yet said anything during the entire conversation. In fact, he did not even look at any of the students there—his eyes were fixated on the sole of his shoes; for some reason, he seemed a bit terrified of something.

"Hey Reiji," Shion muttered to him, "Go prepare that room with Jun. Makes sure everything is appropriate."

The young man just nodded his head quietly and walked towards one of the corridors on the room. He was moving hastily, and it took only a couple of seconds for him to completely disappear from everyone's eyes.

…

"_That room_…?" Ryuhei thought inside his mind, "…_What room_?"

"Come," Shion gestured towards the students, "Follow me. I'll explain everything along the way."

* * *

Shion and the students along with Yamada walked through the corridors of the mansion. If the mansion seemed big enough from the outside, it felt even bigger from the inside. The amount of the corridors and the longevity of each that were placed inside the house were just simply staggering.

Ryuhei felt like they were walking inside a very huge maze. If anyone not familiar with the structure of the mansion was to attempt to explore the place, most probably he or she would get lost along the way.

Although… the corridors themselves were quite a sight; almost all of them were littered with things like enormous paintings on the walls, exquisite-looking vases on the sides, and expensive-looking carpets on the floor—the kind that most people would feel hesitant to step into. The main attraction, however, at least for Ryuhei, was the paintings. Most of them were—for a lack of better word—simply bizarre. A lot of them apparently were picturing an apocalyptic time, where buildings were destroyed and the earth was scorched in red flaming fire and the sky was crimson red blood. Dead bodies abound. Strange creatures roamed the land. Angels looming in the skies, bringing judgment to the heathens down below.

Some of them seemed so real they managed to send more than just a chill down Ryuhei's spine. The owner of this mansion must have a truly bizarre sense taste for collecting those kind of paintings and to display them so proudly on the walls for any visitors to see. In any case, he had never seen such paintings before in his entire life… and bizarre though they may be, for some reason he found that he was strangely attracted to them.

Shion was walking in the front, explaining about things while Yamada was walking behind the group to ensure that nobody trailed off somewhere. The students seemed very interested in hearing her explanations—though perhaps, they were more entranced by the person herself instead of her explanations.

…

"This small town was originally called Shigai-Hongen," Shion said, "The Town of Origin. It was named that way because there's a legend here saying that when Izanagi, the God of Sun, created Japan, this place was the first one that he created before all else. The locals believed that this town is the center of all mystical forces running around in Japan, the center of every paranormal and supernatural energies in the country. A place holding an incredible amount of mystical power."

_Center of paranormal and supernatural energies_…? Ryuhei raised his eyebrows.

"Of course, that was nothing but an old fairy-tale," she smiled, "We actually found this place already deserted when we got here. No one was here—a place without a master. When we sent a group of investigators to this place, all they could find were some scattered documents about various things—it was from those documents that we knew the original name of the town and the legend behind the name."

"…Deserted?" said one of the students, "What happened to the locals?"

Shion shrugged her shoulders.

"We don't know," she said, "We heard rumors that most of the folks that were once here all moved to the big city when the temptations of modern life and the pressure to get money couldn't be repelled anymore. But that was just a rumor and believe me, we've tried to find out about what happened to them but alas, so far we had no luck. In any case, that's when Aozaki Corporation decided to claim the ownership of this abandoned location. It wasn't easy since this place has no master, but thanks to the right connections…" she smiled meaningfully, "We were allowed to claim this place as ours."

"And what are you planning to do with it?" another student chimed in.

"We are planning to restructure the place and built a full-range of entertainment facilities here, from hotels to theme park to casinos," Shion answered, "I was sent by my father to spearhead the project, and this mansion was built specifically to be used as my place of stay and our company's base of operation. Our employees and workers won't be coming until around five days from now, though—we have our hands full with another project at the moment."

Ryuhei felt weird.

Something was just… weird.

The overall talk about deserted town, the story about the mansion…… something… just didn't add up. It seemed somehow… deliberately made up.

He doubted that he's the only one feeling that way, but apparently the rest of his classmates were too busy dawdling on Shion and the mansion itself that they seemed to be willing to accept her story just like that.

"This place—I mean, this mansion," Shion continued, "Was actually not built from the scratch. It was an extension to a huge mansion we believed once owned by the leader of the now-deserted town. We renovated the place and added some sections here and there, but probably around fifty to sixty percents of the old building were left intact."

The group took a left on the nearby junction.

"Because some of the original rooms built here were just plain _cool_," Shion said with almost a childish-excitement on the tone of her voice, a side of her that apparently surprised quite a number of people on the entourage, "We didn't know what they were for, but it seemed to me it's going to be such a waste to tear them just like this," she snapped her fingers.

"This town is actually filled with a lot of interesting places," Yamada said from the back, "To answer your question before, Kamazaki, I will request each and every one of you to study this place as much as possible for our Study Tour. Additionally, Shion has agreed to me to answer any questions that you may have in regards to how a big company such as Aozaki Corporation is run. It's something that most journalists in this country would die to have a chance of, so I'm sure by the conclusion of this Study Tour all of you would have a lot of things to tell your parents about."

Most of the students seemed eager, and some of them even yelled 'Yeah!' in high-spirits.

"Ah, but if I may request something," Shion raised her hand, "Please refrain yourself to get… overly excited in telling your stories. I'd hate it if some journalists get a wind of the news that I am here and then they come in here waggling their recorders and cameras."

…

They were now walking inside a corridor that was somewhat different from the ones before. There's no paintings on the wall, and the floor was not carpeted. It was a short corridor, but at the end of it there's a huge wooden door with strange-looking decorations carved on it.

"Remember what I said before about some of the original rooms built here were pretty cool?" Shion said, "Well, this one is the coolest of all."

She approached the door and pushed it gently inward, the wooden doors made an almost inaudible squeaky noise as they were opened to reveal the room inside.

…

……

Anyone would have expected something different than the sight presented to them right now. The room they entered was very strange: every corners of it from the walls, ceilings, and floor were painted black, and there's absolutely nothing else inside the room—no furniture, no lamps, no windows, nothing. Just an empty room with blackness all over the place.

The group walked in, the students couldn't hide their curiosity towards the very strange room.

"Woah," said one of the perplexed-looking students, "What's wrong with this room? Why everything is painted black here?"

"It is called the Room of Summoning," Yamada closed the wooden doors behind him as he's the last one to enter the strange room, "It is believed that by painting the whole room black, the whole process of demon summoning will get easier since black represents void, darkness, emptiness—things that vile creatures like Demons favor more than any others."

Ryuhei whirled around to look at Yamada.

"What?" he said—he couldn't really believe what he just heard, "_Demon _summoning?"

"Well, the people of Shigai-Hongen had a knack of everything supernatural, and that's just apparently one of the things they sometimes did to pass the time," Shion said jokingly, making Ryuhei whirled around to cast his eyes on her, "This room may first look somewhat ordinary, but just wait… this is what I mean when I said this room is the coolest."

She walked towards the northern part of the room.

She turned around to face the students.

And then, she chanted something. Something that none of the students were able to understand. Something spoken with some weird abstract language no one had ever heard before in their entire life.

…

Then, something happened.

Suddenly, the room was filled with glowing letters. Glowing, _moving_ letters. It was like some sort of programming codes moving on a computer screen, but instead of numbers, it was letters. It was a sight unlike anything the students had prepared to see, and they couldn't help but to feel both absolutely dumbfounded and amazed at the same time.

"Wooooaaaaw!" Kenji yelled out a yelp of amazement, "Dude, check this out! What the hell is this?"

"…They're so pretty…" Ryuhei could hear Yumi muttered softly beside her.

"What the…?"

"…Woow… Amazing……"

And the reactions of the other students were nothing less than that as well. Amazed, astonished, although confused at the same time.

But as dumbfounded and amazed as they be, they couldn't help but to feel even _more _surprised when they heard what Shion had to say next.

…

"Okay," Shion clapped her hands, "I apologize, but now, all of you must die."

* * *

It was so abrupt.

Sudden, without any warning.

The students were frozen. They couldn't move, because none of them could believe what they just heard.

…

"…Excuse me?" said one of the students.

"I meant what I said," she smiled, "All of you must die here. Today. Now. In this room."

…

……

"What the hell…?" said another students with a confused look on his face, "Was that supposed to be a joke?"

"Oh it's not a joke."

The students all turned around unanimously, because the one that just spoke was not Shion, but rather—Yamada. And they were also greeted by a surprising sight: there were two other people behind them besides Yamada, two other people that they didn't see before when they entered the room.

One of them was the meek-looking guy that was standing behind Shion before when she first introduced herself to them. For some reason, he looked absolutely mortified. He was shaking like crazy, like he was extremely terrified about something that's about to happen in front of him. The other one was another young man with a grayish hair wearing a black shirt with blue pants—only one person amongst the students recognized him.

"_What the_…" Ryuhei muttered inside his mind, "_That's the guy I saw earlier_…"

…

"W…what do you mean by that, Sensei?" said one of the female students—she still that look on her face suggesting that she's still couldn't quite believe what she just heard, "C…come on now. It's not funny…"

"Do I look like I'm joking, Uehara?" Yamada said with an even face—and it was a chilling sight to behold. The expression on his face, the eyes, the sternness of his voice. It was terrifying, "Neither me or Shion here is joking right now."

The students all got moved closer to one another. Yumi looked scared—she was grabbing Ryuhei's hand almost subconsciously. Ryuhei could feel her cold sweat and slight tremble.

"So Shion!" the young man with gray hair yelled, "How are we going to do this? It seems to be so much trouble using our Demons to kill all of these insignificant people! After all, only _one _of them is the container, right?"

"Do whatever you wish," Shion said matter-of-factly.

"Heh!" the gray hair looked amused, "Alright then. Let's do it with our world's old-fashioned style!"

He unceremoniously pulled something from inside his shirt, and what he pulled from there sent the students immediately into a panic frenzy.

It was a very authentic-looking automatic gun.

The females were all screaming, and they got even closer to one another. Tears of fear were flowing down from the eyes, cold sweats permeating the body, the knees trembled from the overwhelming sensation…

Ryuhei held Yumi's arm even firmer.

One of the students came forward.

He looked scared, though he still had that unsure look on his face.

"H… hey, come on now," he stuttered a bit, "It's not funny you know. Come on now, stop jok…"

-BANG!-

It was fast.

Too fast.

He didn't have a chance to finish his sentence. The next thing the students saw was the sight of one of their classmates fell to the ground. Lifeless. With a pool of blood flowing from his now bullet-pierced forehead.

"It's real alright," the gray hair snickered while waving his gun mockingly, "Well, I guess it isn't him then."

Scream of terror filled the air as the students, fearing for their lives, immediately scrambled to all directions trying to save themselves. They were all consumed by fear, overwhelmed by the thoughts that they weren't going to be alive for long anymore.

The only one that didn't move was Ryuhei. He kept standing at the center of the room, holding Yumi's shaking hand. Staring with disbelief at the sight of Yamada who looked pleased by the screams of terror of his own students. Staring with disbelief at the sight of a man who would so casually pull the trigger of a gun that would kill so many.

-BANG!-

-BANG!-

-BANG!-

Staring with the disbelief at the sight of his friends, one by one, falling to the ground and died as the bullets fired by the grey hair pierced their bodies.

"Ryuh…!" was the last thing Kenji could say as he was running towards Ryuhei with his hand erected towards him. He didn't make it as a bullet pierced the side of his forehead and he fell down brusquely to the ground, dead.

…

It was two minutes filled with pure terror as Ryuhei witnessed his entire classmates were killed mercilessly one after another by the gray hair. All that's left was him and Yumi, standing on the center of the room, with Yumi pulling an effort of her life to stay conscious.

"Yumi," Ryuhei said with a slightly trembling voice, "Stay behind me."

He didn't know what he's thinking, but the very first thing that came into his mind was that he would protect her. He knew it was a futile attempt, but nevertheless he moved forward in front of her to form a shield between her and the gun held by the gray hair.

"Heh, pretty cool dude," he said with an amused voice when he witnessed the last two in the middle of the room, "Even when all of your friends dying all around you, you still manage to act all noble-like, protecting the damsel behind you. And you're not screaming and running around like all of your worthless friends too. Quite impressive."

"His name is Ryuhei Kamazaki," Yamada said, "And yeah, he's pretty famous I think amongst his friends as a person that cannot be fazed by anything or anyone."

"Ryuhei-kun, eh?" the gray hair moved forward while juggling the gun with both his left and right hands; his expression looked playful, "…I think I like you. It would be awesome if it turns out that _you_ are the one we've been looking for."

Ryuhei wasn't even finished registering what the gray hair just said when he suddenly disappeared from his sight. The next thing heard was a gasp of surprise coming from Yumi who was standing behind him. He quickly whirled around…

And the grey hair was there, behind Yumi, pointing the gun directly at Yumi's left temple.

"Say goodbye," he said nonchalantly.

"…Ryuhei-sa…"

-BANG-

-Splat!-

…

Ryuhei's name was the last thing Kanehada Yumi could speak of before her hands slipped off from Ryuhei's as she fell to the ground, lifeless.

Some of her blood was splattered onto his face.

He couldn't move.

He was frozen.

It was as if time itself has stopped moving.

…He couldn't even think of anything when the grey hair slowly raised his gun towards his chest.

…

"And now," the gray hair muttered softly, "…For the grand finale."

He pulled the trigger.

A loud bang.

And Ryuhei fell on to the ground.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**

* * *

  
**


	3. Chapter 3

-Sorry for the late update. Been busy with work, life, and the wonder of Nintendo DS…

-Some of the idioms and concepts mentioned here in this chapter _will _confuse you, I think, but please bear with them for now. All will be explained in due time. In the meanwhile, just enjoy the story and all of its absurdities… :)

-Thank you for all of the reviews and most particularly, the original characters. **Please be patient if your characters do not show up immediately**—I can't just introduce characters in rapid succession without seriously disrupting the overall narrative flow of the story. I will put your character in my story only if I feel that your character is fitting for my story and only _when the time is right_. Of course, **naturally** **not all original characters proposed to me will be green-lighted**, and **priority will be given to people who have yet to have their original characters featured in this story**. Try to make your characters as unique as possible, although please _do _refrain from making an overly outrageous character traits, history, or personality……

-All reviews and feedbacks would be appreciated.

Best Regards,

**Pizza Blade**

**DISCLAIMER: **Don't forget that this is **just** a work of fiction, made primarily for fun, and it is not in any shape of form a deliberate attempt of slanting any religion/belief systems out there.

* * *

~_For mortals vanished from the day's sweet light, I shed no tear; rather I mourn for those who day and night live in death's fear_.~

An original Fan-fiction based on the popular Shin Megami Tensei game series

**Valde Ordo**

Chapter Three: Awakening

_Written and Directed by Pizza Blade_

Special thanks to all of my readers and reviewers

* * *

He pulled the trigger.

A loud bang.

And Ryuhei fell on to the ground.

…

-Brugh-

He fell right next to Yumi with his head facing the floor, blood protruded profusely from the bullet wound now gaping at his chest. Two bodies near one another, two were dead, lying on top a pool of blood.

The Grey Hair lifted his gun, the barrel still hot from spewing so many bullets that killed so many people, and tucked it inside the black shirt he wore.

He gazed towards the unmoving Ryuhei for a while, as if he's waiting for something to happen.

…

……

"Well," he said in a disappointed voice when in the end nothing happened at all, "It seems that it isn't him that we're searching for. Too bad…… I like his guts. It would be great if he's the one…"

"But if he is not the one, Jun," Shion said as she moved forward—the sight of so many dead bodies around her did not seem to faze her in the slightest, "Then the one that we are looking for is not here as well."

The Grey Hair whom Shion just called Jun shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't know," he said, "Not my business—not my mistake. If there's anyone here that should be blamed, its him."

He nodded towards Yamada, who jerked in surprise.

"W…wait, wait, wait," Yamada waved his hands—he looked a bit panicked, "How come this is _my_ fault?"

"You are well aware that the Great Ordeal is upon us soon," Shion said matter-of-factly, "It is going to become very dangerous and exceptionally difficult to find _it_ once the Ordeal begins. We also still need to find _it_ to have a chance conversing with the Great Origin at the End of Purgatory. How do you expect that we can do that if don't have an agreement with an Everlasting?"

"W…well yeah, I know," Yamada stuttered, "But I _did _what you asked. _You _are the one who told me that that you have seen and analyzed the _signs_ and that they pointed to a person in my class as the _one_! _You_ are the one that asked me to bring all of my students here to this room so that we can find the one containing the Will of an Everlasting! I have done everything that you told me to, and if the information is incorrect, then it would be a mistake on _your_ part, not mine!"

Jun chuckled. "…He got a point there, Shion," he said.

Shion sighed.

She looked slightly annoyed.

"Yes, well," she muttered darkly, "…Regardless, if even inside the evocative atmosphere of this room still nothing happens, then I suppose it is safe to assume that the one we're looking for is not amongst any of these people," she scanned the entire room, her gaze unflinching by the horrible sight caught in her view, "…The Great Ordeal probably still won't start for a good deal of time. The Scroll of Foresight said that it won't begin until all of the Everlasting—all the Great Demons of the First Hierarchy—are summoned to the Realm of the Mortals. …We just have to secure an agreement with one as soon as possible before other people beat us to it……"

"There are _eight_ of them," Jun looked down on Yumi's dead body. For some reason, he seemed to be tempted to toy with it, and he did—he kicked it just for the hell of it, "…Sooner or later, we are bound to meet with one. Whether or not the one we meet would be so willing in making an agreement with us is another story though……"

He kicked Yumi's body one more time, and the body rolled over for quite some distance before it bumped another student's dead body.

He looked towards Shion.

"…Worst comes to worst," he shook his head, "Maybe we should just settle for the Great Demons of the Second or Third Hierarchy," he shrugged, "I'm confident that with my power and yours combined, an agreement even with a Second or a Third would be enough to strike us a bargain even with the 'big boss'."

"No," Shion replied bluntly, "I wouldn't be so confident with that… We cannot be too careful… not with this one."

…

Shion was silent for a moment, before she turned her attention to the only person who hasn't yet spoke anything since he's inside the room—the meek-looking guy standing at Yamada's left. Of all the people inside the room, it was only him that appeared very highly disturbed and uncomfortable by the sight of all the dead bodies in the room.

"Reiji," she said, "Clean up this mess. I will go back to the Room of Prediction to check perhaps I might have misinterpreted something. Use your Demon to clean up the bodies if you have to."

Reiji didn't say anything—he didn't even look towards Shion. All he did as a response was a weak nod.

"Alright," it would appear that a weak nod was a good enough answer for her, "Yamada, you help me. I don't like being together in the same room as you," she said this without a hint of hesitation whatsoever, "But the powers of two Contractors is better than just one for Predicting, and if I have to choose between you or Jun, I would choose you."

Jun couldn't help but to laugh hearing her straight-forward statement.

"Wowza," he said with an amused look on his face, "That is just so _you_, Shion."

"Damn it," Yamada looked displeased, "So all of this are for nothing then?" he gestured towards the multitude of dead bodies inside the room, "…Not that I'd mind much since they all going to die anyway when the Great Ordeal begins but still……" he shook his head, "…What a terrible waste."

Shion didn't say anything as she unceremoniously made a beeline straight to the exit.

Reiji, meanwhile, began to pick up a dead student's body that was the closest to him. It was a rather fat boy, and he has some difficulties with it.

"Oh heck," Jun said when he saw Reiji struggling, "Why are you so fond of making things difficult for yourself? Just use your Demon to eat all of the bodies and voila!" he clapped his hands dramatically, "It will all be cleaned in an instant!"

Reiji did not even look at him as he continued to struggle with the fat student's body.

"Hmrph," Jun seemed annoyed, "Fine. Have it your way."

He looked towards Ryuhei's dead body.

"Cheh,"

He swung his leg to kick Ryuhei's body.

…

-GREP!-

When all of a sudden, his leg was stopped, caught in mid-air.

* * *

!!!

Jun couldn't hide his surprise.

Neither could Yamada, whose eyes bulging widely as he witnessed the event.

Reiji was so surprised he let go of the fat boy, and Shion who felt something was off immediately whirled around to see what's going on, and her expression thereafter was that of a huge astonishment as well.

…

Jun's kick was stopped half-way, because his leg was caught by someone using his right hand.

And that someone was Ryuhei.

Ryuhei, who was supposed to be dead with a gaping bullet wound right on his chest.

…

_Deg…_

_…Deg……_

_……Degg!_

Shion suddenly felt an abrupt rush of adrenaline rising inside her body. There's a sudden chilling sensation pervading the air—a chilling, pressuring, and overwhelming sensation. It was something that not only she could feel: Reiji looked downright frightened and Yamada was unconsciously taking a step backward, his eyes still looked like they could pop out from their sockets anytime now.

"Jun!" she yelled almost immediately, her voice screamed with urgency, "Get away from there! _**Hurry**_!"

He tried to pull his caught leg out of Ryuhei's grip, but the grip was so strong he was having some difficulty with it. That, and he felt some sort of weird sensation coming from Ryuhei's hand—the immediate area of his leg around Ryuhei's grip felt weak for some reason, like there was _something_ flowing from Ryuhei's hand that made his muscles so feeble all of a sudden.

"_Damn it_," he said when he still couldn't pull his leg off Ryuhei's grip after an additional effort. He pulled out the gun from behind his shirt and pointed it directly towards the back of Ryuhei's head.

-BANG!-

-BANG!-

-BANG!-

He shot three bullets directly to Ryuhei's head, and the shock they caused made Ryuhei's body jerked and his grip loosened—an opportunity that Jun didn't miss. He hastily pulled out his leg out of Ryuhei's hands and jumped backwards towards the direction of Yamada and Reiji.

He could feel his muscles gradually changed back to normal, although clearly he wasn't entirely too pleased with what just happened. Just like the other three in the room, he immediately focused his attention towards Ryuhei who stopped moving after receiving three direct shots so bluntly.

"What the hell…?" Jun said with a perplexed look on his face.

"W…wha…" Yamada was stuttering, "What just happened?"

…

DeG…

…DeGG…

……DEGG……

"W…w…woahhh!" Yamada screamed.

Because he saw Ryuhei's body moving again. The body suddenly jerked like someone electrocuted it, and then two-three seconds later Ryuhei _moved_ both his arm pushing the floor

"You three!" Shion motioned the other three inside the room to join her by her side, "Quickly!"

Without any further delay, Jun, Reiji, and Yamada all dashed towards Shion, although to do so they must pass through Ryuhei. None dare running straight towards Ryuhei, however—they all circled him.

…

"W…what's going on, Shion?" for the first time ever Reiji opened his mouth. He looked positively terrified, "W…what's going on?"

He could see Shion's entire body was trembling slightly, although he couldn't tell if it was caused by fear or by excitement. Her expression was somewhat a mixture of apprehension and curiosity—as if a part of her told her that she should just scram and a part of her told her that she should stay in this room no matter what.

"Heheheheh…" for some reason Jun laughed shortly, "It's _it_, isn't it, Shion? Inside him. This is _it_. One of _them_. Impossible for a mere human to return from his dead, except _something_ allows him to. It's _it_—your Prediction _is_ correct, Shion."

"H…how do you know that's exactly the case?" Yamada yammered—of all four, he's the one that looked most panicked, "I… it could be something else!"

"No," Jun said shortly, "…If it's something else……"

He put his hand on his chest.

"……" his face looked excited, "…Then Samael wouldn't be terrified like this……"

Reiji immediately stared at the bottles held on the belt she wore—the substances inside them for some reason were rapidly changing colors from green to black to blue to red back to green, and they were all moving very erratic like someone shook the bottles very violently.

He could feel something was shaking inside him too—scared. He could hear his own heart-beat, and he could feel his entire body swarmed by cold sweats.

"Don't you feel it?" Jun said again without taking his eyes off from Ryuhei—"…Don't your Demons feel it? This overwhelming sensation… if it's any normal Demons, it impossible that the atmosphere would change like this…"

Ryuhei began to stood up, though his face was still looking towards the floor.

"T… then!" Yamada stuttered, "…The plan _works_?" he looked hesitated.

"Yeah," Jun answered again since Shion looked so positively entranced by Ryuhei she seemed already disconnected with the world around her, "The only problem right now is what that _thing_ will decide—agreeing with us, or kicking our asses."

…

Ryuhei has now stood up, and lifted his face so that he could see the entire room clearly.

It was an uncanny sight, with all the blood still flowing from the very apparent bullet wound on his chest. The back of his head was bleeding too from the shots Jun previously sent directly towards it—the blood was dripping to the floor making a small pool and it looked like Ryuhei didn't seem bothered by it even in the slightest.

In fact, he looked _bored_.

Nothing from him seemed different from the previous Ryuhei, although it's true that the extremely pressuring atmosphere in this room right now unmistakably coming from him. The air was so visibly tense it was almost unbearable.

…

"**So**…"

Shion, Reiji, Yamada, and even Jun all gasped in surprise.

Because all of a sudden a strange voice spoke to them—the voice seemed so eerily close to their ears it was as if someone was standing directly behind them and whispered to their ears. What was so surprising that not only the voice came out from nowhere, but at first glance it looked like there's no one inside the room speaking it since even Ryuhei did not open his mouth even in the slightest.

Though for some reason they knew…… They just _knew_ that the one that just spoke was Ryuhei. Or… the _thing_ inside Ryuhei right now—because the voice… it was decidedly _not_ Ryuhei's voice…… it didn't even sound human.

Ryuhei looked around the room—his bored expression changed into a slight interest.

"**…A Summoning Room…**" the voice seemed amused, "**Interesting contraption, though still very… **_**human**_**. It's the art of Shigai-Hongen, hmm? Regardless… it doesn't really matter in any case**…"

Ryuhei now was looking straight towards the four. His eyes—they seemed so empty yet at the same time felt very penetrating, like he could see right into their very soul.

"**Which one of you are brave or stupid enough to use the Art That Is Despised By God?**" the voice said, "**Although…**"

Ryuhei smiled.

"**It seems like all four of you already committed the **_**Unthinkable**_**,**" the voice continued, "**Each one of you has made a Contract with a Vile Being, eh?"**

Ryuhei stared at Jun.

"**Samael… the Wailer of Death**."

Jun felt something inside him was shaking in fear, and in all honesty he felt somewhat scared too, although for some reason a sense of excitement now overwhelmed his entire body.

"**Chu Chulainn**… **the Ominous Spear," **he looked towards Reiji—who at that exact moment subconsciously took a step backward.

Ryuhei turned to Yamada, who couldn't help but to yelp.

…

"…**Hahahaha**," the voice sounded _very_ amused after a slight pause, "**Very** **interesting indeed**. **Pixie the Trickster, eh**…?"

Finally he stared at Shion.

"**And**…" the voice spoke out, "**Slime… the All Eater. Hm…**"

The weird-looking substances inside the bottles shook violently, very contrast to the expression on Shion's face that still looked calm. Very calm, in fact, especially when compared to the faces of Reiji and most particularly Yamada.

…

"**For you young Mortals to form a Contract with the Vile Beings**, **still Children as they are,**" the voice said, "**It seems that all of you are amongst the chosen few who knew the Coming and the Significance of The Grand Ordeal**…"

"Yes," Shion was the one that replied, "We are. Can we… ask you a question?"

The voice didn't reply. Ryuhei, on the other hand, was scanning the entire room—his expression looked somewhat interested seeing the sight of so many dead bodies… for some reason, a slight smile was formed on his lips.

Shion decided to just continue.

"Are you, by any chance," she said, "One… of the _Everlasting_? One of the Supreme Demons of the First Hierarchy? The Rulers of the Great Demons of the Second and Third Hierarchy—the Kings of all the Unholy?"

Ryuhei stopped scanning the room and immediately turned his attention towards her.

He still didn't say anything, but his eyes were entirely fixed towards her.

Shion took that as a cue for her to continue, and she did just that.

"If you are… then pardon me for asking, but which one of the Supreme Demons are you?" she said, "…_Beelzebub_, the Lord of Anarchy...... _Leviathan_, the Great Disbeliever... _Asmodai_, the Unholy Luster…… _Berith_, the King of Blasphemy…… _Astaroth_, the Originator of Vanity…… _Verrin_, the Instiller of Impatience…… _Gressil_, the Source of Impurity…… or _Sonneillon_, the Bringer of Hatred?"

Ryuhei gave a meaningful look towards Shion.

…

"**It is no wonder perhaps that the Great Being that is Most Divine and Powerful decided to enact the Grand Ordeal. If even a mere Mortal such as yourself can correctly utter the names of the Supreme Demons…" **the voice spoke out, **"And doing so with such ease, with such comfort, then the world perhaps has gone too far out from Order as the road He prefers to the unbridled disorder of Chaos…**"

"Stop avoiding the question," Jun said bluntly—an act that resulted in Yamada immediately giving a 'What-the-hell-are-you-doing?' look towards him, "Are you one of them or not?"

Ryuhei shrugged his shoulders.

"**If I am**," the voice said, "**What are you intending to do?**"

"We would like you to make an oath with us that you will take us under your protection during the Grand Ordeal," Shion said straight-forwardly, "The Grand Ordeal may not begin for a while yet, but we are keen with preparing ourselves so that we can survive it, and reaching the End of Purgatory."

"**You are admirably well informed about the mechanics of the Grand Ordeal**," the voice commented, "**Far beyond the knowledge allowed to be bestowed upon the likes of you. Tell Me then, what are you planning if you survive the Grand Ordeal and the End of Purgatory?**"

"We want to meet with the Great Origin itself," Shion said again, "We want to see the Great Origin face to face."

Surprisingly, the mysterious voice let out a small laugh. A small, amused, laugh.

"**Hahahahaha**," the voice sounded interested, "**Mere mortals wishing to have an audience with the Great Origin? Even the Supreme Demons cannot meet with Him easily, and yet you wish to see Him face to face?"**

"We know about the Grand Ordeal's purpose," Shion said, "We know all the rules. The Grand Ordeal must be done in the land of the Mortals, and even the Supreme Demons must abide by the rules of this world that has been set by the Great Origin: in order to be able to materialize and fully manifest your powers in the realm of the Mortals, you are required to write an agreement with an inhabitant of this world to possess their body as a vessel, as a container, so to speak."

Ryuhei sighed—he looked visibly annoyed.

"**Yes, well, what you just said hold the truth that even I cannot deny**," the voice said, "**Even We do not have a full comprehension on His reasoning why the Grand Ordeal must be done in the Mortal Plane**…"

Ryuhei seemed to be thinking about something.

It appeared like he was quite interested towards the four people now standing in front of him.

"**Admirable**," the voice commented, "**I must conclude that your vast understanding about the Grand Ordeal and the mechanics of the world beyond that of the Mortal Plane is derived from the people of Shigai-Hongen. I must admit, even We sometimes wonder how they can possibly commanded such powerful knowledge while they are nothing more but just Men. And why He would let them obtain such knowledge without consequences. It is of no secret that they have made contact with quite a number of Demons—even devised the means to form a pact with them, a contract to force our kind to work under you. A very courageous yet blasphemous act, yet one that He curiously let go without punishment……"**

…

"**And the reason why you do this to My container**," Ryuhei pointed to the bullet hole on his chest**, "Inside this Room of Summoning filled with ancient runes and glyphs, is to summon Me so that you can have an audience with Me?**"

"Precisely," Shion nodded, "Through the sacred art of Prediction…"

The voice once again let out an amused laugh, interrupting Shion before she could have a chance of finishing her sentence.

"**The Art of Prediction, you say?**" the voice said, "**Are you saying that you are also capable of performing it? The Divine Knowledge that was once stolen from the realm of Heavens? How… delightfully preposterous, young Human…**"

"It doesn't matter," Shion cut in rather aggressively, "It is a very difficult art, so even I cannot perform it to its full potential. However, by using it I have been able to determine that an Everlasting is fated to make a Contract precisely _today_ with a male human born on August 3rd, 1995, on the third day of the fourth week, and under the star of _Svaha_. It is very difficult to narrow those criteria down to a single person, but at the very least we were able to determine that that person is one of citizen of Japan. Judging from the age, he's most likely a high-school student…"

"**Ho…**" the voice said, "**And your Prediction further brought you to the conclusion that the person was one of the students of this…… congregation of young humans you called a… class**?"

"Yes, but we weren't entirely sure since the art of Prediction was not intended to be used by humans in the first place. As such, the results I have gleamed from it may not be entirely true," Shion said, "However, we decided to just take a chance with it—and from the looks of things, it seemed that all of our efforts paid off."

"**So**…" for some reason the voice sounded as if it was very entertained, "**You decided to bring all of these young humans here to this very Room of Summoning** **and killed them all just to find the one that has been contracted?**"

Shion nodded.

"We have no way of knowing whether a person has made a contract or not, even though we ourselves have made contracts with Demons," she said, "…That's why we decided to pull this off…" she waved towards the multitude of dead bodies inside the room, "Because we know that in the case of Supreme Demons, once a contracted human is killed, the Supreme Demon that that person make contract with will push the human's soul down to the Abyss and take over the human body, showing its true nature—in essence, coming out from the hiding place," she paused for a bit, "The unique atmosphere of the Room of Summoning also made the job easier. And the scent of deaths on this place strengthens the atmosphere even further."

"**Yes, well**……" Ryuhei looked around the room, "**All of these Runes and Glyphs do create a rather comfortable atmosphere for our kind to stay here… I must say however,**" he looked again at Shion and moved one step forward—a gesture that made the other four inside the room took a precautionary step back, "**I am not One easily amused by the things that occur in this world, but all of you young humans amuse me so. Not only all of you managed to secure contracts with various Demons, you also have a vast knowledge on the mechanics of the Grand Ordeal and the Forbidden Art of Prediction—things otherworldly that are not in your place to know and understand. You also have the courage to ask a Supreme Demon for its aid in order to meet with the Great Being that is Most Divine and Powerful. Finally, and this is the part that entertains me the most…**"

Ryuhei smiled.

"**Is the fact that you are so willingly vaporize the life of so many**," the voice said, "**Just to have a chance to converse with a Supreme Demon such as myself**. **You have committed so many blasphemy against His name, so what makes you think that He will be so delighted to have an audience with you **_**if**_** you survive the End of Purgatory**?"

"That is my…" Shion stopped for a while before continuing, "…_Our_ business."

"**Hoh**," the voice said shortly.

"So, a… are you confirming that y…y….you are one of the Supreme D……Demons?" Yamada blurted out—it seemed it took a lot of his energy and courage just to be able to speak that, "T…that you are one of the Eight…?"

**"I am**," the voice replied matter-of-factly, "**And yes, I have made a Contract with the one that was originally the owner of this body**."

"Which one are you?" Jun shouted.

"**It doesn't really matter which one I am amongst the Great Eight**," the voice responded, **"I must ask, why you think that I would be willing to form an agreement with you? What makes you think that I would be so willing to take all of you under My Guidance until the End of Purgatory? For all we know, I can just kill all four of you right now and be done with it.**"

Shion glanced towards Jun, Yamada, and Reiji.

All three of them nodded, and then with amazing speed they ran towards different directions of the room. Jun circled around the room heading to the northern side, while Yamada and Reiji dashed towards the eastern and western sides respectively. With Shion stood still in the southern side, all four of them completely surrounded Ryuhei who's in the center of the room.

Ryuhei just looked around each and every one of them but he did nothing. In fact, it would appear that he deliberately refraining himself from moving because he's interested to see what the four of them would try to do next.

The four all extended both their hands towards Ryuhei with their palms opened wide. The Runes and Glyphs that were running around on the room's ceilings, floor, and walls suddenly moved even faster. They glowed much brighter too, like someone just suddenly decided to amp the electricity much higher.

It was apparently a sight that caught Ryuhei's interest greatly, because he suddenly had this sparkling glow on his eyes that weren't there before. It was as if he knew that he's about to watch a show of a lifetime.

…

"_Listen to the words of the Horned God, the Guardian of all things wild and free_," Shion chanted loudly, "_And Keeper of the Gates of Death_, _whose Call all must answer_: _I am the fire within your heart_... _The yearning of your Soul_!"

Suddenly her hands were glowing, and there's a mysterious line of light appeared from below her legs and stretched all the way towards Ryuhei until it 'touched' Ryuhei's feet.

"_I am the Hunter of Knowledge and the Seeker of the Holy Quest_. _I_—_who stand in the darkness of light am He whom you have called Death_. _I_—_the Consort and Mate of Her we adore_, _call forth to thee_!" this time it was Reiji that chanted loudly—he was having some difficulty, but it was clear that he's trying his best, "_Heed my call_, _beloved ones_, _come unto me and learn the secrets of death and peace_!"

Just like Shion, his hands were glowing brightly too and a mysterious line made of light suddenly appeared from below his legs and stretched itself all the way to Ryuhei. It also stopped when it 'touched' Ryuhei's feet.

Ryuhei gave a slight glance towards Jun on his back—it was if he knew that Jun's the one going next.

"_I am the corn at harvest and the fruit on the trees_. _I am He who leads you home_. _Scourge and Flame_, _Blade and Blood_—_these are mine and gifts to thee_," and it was true, because Jun was the one that chanted loudly next, "_Call unto me in the forest wild and on hilltop bare and seek me in the Darkness Bright_. _I_—_who have been called_; _Pan_, _Herne_, _Osiris_, and _Hades_, _speak to thee in thy search_!"

The same thing like before occurred again.

"_Come dance and sing_; _come live and smile_, _for behold_: _this is my worship_!" Yamada screamed out, "_Y_…_you are my children and I am thy Father_. _On swift night wings it is I who lay you at the Mother_'_s_ _feet to be reborn and to return again_. _Thou who t_… _thinks to seek me_, _know that I am the untamed wind_, _the fury of storm and passion in your Soul_!"

The same thing happened yet again, and now there were four mysterious lines made of light stretching from each of Shion, Jun, Reiji, and Yamada all the way towards Ryuhei's legs.

Ryuhei looked down to the floor, and he could see a very bright circle started to form around him before it spun with a loud buzzing sound. Again, he still did nothing aside from observing the whole proceedings with an interested expression on his face.

"_Seek me with pride and humility, but seek me best with love and strength_," Shion once again chanted loudly—the circle of light formed around Ryuhei began to spin faster, and faster, "_For this is my path_, _and I love not the weak and fearful_. _Hear my call on long Winter nights and we shall stand together_……"

"_Guarding Her Earth as She sleeps_!" Shion, Jun, Reiji, and Yamada yelled simultenously together.

The circle of light stopped abruptly, before a second later suddenly shot up towards the ceilings of the room enveloping Ryuhei inside a blinding pillar of light. The part of the ceiling that was hit by the pillar of light completely disintegrated, and it created a powerful shockwave that went to all directions, making Yamada fell onto the floor, Reiji thrown back to the walls, Jun's left knee touched the floor, and Shion almost lost her balance if she didn't quickly strengthen her foothold. The room itself was shaking like crazy, like it was hit by a fierce earthquake.

The room kept shaking for a couple of minutes until it finally calmed down. The pillar of light enveloping Ryuhei gradually dissipated, and when it was completely gone Ryuhei could be seen still standing in the same spot as if nothing has happened. The only thing that was different from before was Ryuhei closing his eyes, like he's in the middle of a reverie.

…

……

For what seemed like forever none in this room was moving. Shion, Jun, Reiji, and Yamada looked tired, although their eyes were entirely fixated into Ryuhei, unwilling to break off for even a second.

Ryuhei slowly opened his eyes.

…He looked up to the hole on the ceiling for a moment, before finally casting his eyes towards Shion.

…

He smiled.

"**…So that is your bargaining chip**?" the mysterious voice again spoke out, "_**Charge of the God**_**?**"

"…one of the Holy Words once spoken by Him, it is the most powerful Demon banishment invocation ever exist," Shion was panting slightly—although that didn't stop her from giving Ryuhei a determined glare, "Although ironically, it intended not to banish Demons in the first place, but rather to weaken them. Once a Demon has been enveloped by the Holy Light of God, its demonic power is reduced very considerably. Very much so, in fact, that even a simple spell of banishment is more than enough to evict a demon back to where it belongs. And I am sure you, as one of the Supreme Demons of this world, realize what it means if you are evicted back to Hel when the Grand Ordeal is about to begin?"

Ryuhei—or rather, the mysterious voice—didn't reply.

"That means you will lose your chance to participate in the Grand Ordeal, Demon," Jun spoke out with a mocking tone, "While all of your other friends are here to have some fun, you will be forced to sit your ass inside the blazing hot inferno of Hel and forever lose the opportunity to converse with Him at the End of Purgatory. That must be suck."

He took out his gun.

-BANG!-

And without so much of a warning he shot it directly towards Ryuhei's back.

The bullet hit the target squarely, and while Ryuhei didn't even flinch when he was hit, fresh blood immediately flooded out from the wound the bullet caused. Ryuhei glanced back over his shoulders, his expression looked rather disinterested.

"Heh," Jun smirked, "A body hosting a Demon soul inside it wouldn't normally be so easily harmed by anything, especially by a simple human-made weapon like this. The simple fact that the shot I just fired to you caused your human body to bleed that much indicates that the Demonic power protecting that body from harm has been weakened very severely. I bet even Yamada with his pathetic Pixie can finish you off now. You wouldn't even have a chance to survive the Grand Ordeal as you are right now."

Yamada looked offended, but before he could say anything the mysterious voice spoke,

"**I gather**," it said, "**Since you know how to perform this Invocation you also know the one to counter it?"**

"If you agree to take us under your wing through the Grand Ordeal until the End of Purgatory," she said, "If you agree to make an oath with us to that effect, then we will perform The Charge of the Goddesses on you to remove the effect of the Charge of the God. We know that a Demon like you is forbidden and thus cannot speak the incantation for either of the Invocations since they are both words once said by the Holy Being Himself. What say you?"

Ryuhei looked amused.

"**What makes you think that I will not betray you if I do say I agree with you right now**?" the voice responded, "**Is it wise for all of you to form a negotiation with a **_**Supreme Demon**_**?"**

"An oath is not something that you are capable to break," Shion immediately chimed in, "You may be a Demon, but as you are unable to break the oath of never to harm Him made during the day of your creation, you are also unable to break any other oath that you may form with any other living creatures henceforth."

……

"…**I must say**," the mysterious voice began to speak again, "**The length all of you are willing to go to obtain your goals is quite… extraordinary. You do not even have any doubts in using the Holy Words originally belonged to Him to force a Supreme Demon like Myself to agreeing to your terms.**"

Ryuhei laughed, although it was not really _him_ that laughed… it made the scene rather eerie to see. It startled Shion, however, perhaps because she felt like the fact that the voice laughed signified that it wasn't bothered by the its condition right now—something that she clearly didn't expect to happen.

"**Even My fellow Brethrens would not dare to blaspheme His Name this much, for even if He hated Us and banished Us out from His eternal sight, and We are forever fated to hold deep hatred for Him, We still fear Him. We fear the Great One who holds the unsurpassed, unimaginable power**," the voice said, "**Yet you, the Young Mortals, you have shown that even though in the Grand Scheme of the Universe you are nothing but a speck of insignificant dust, you have no fear even for the Wrath of He who can give the greatest Anger… He who can deliver the swiftest of Judgment**. **You do not hesitate even to use what was once belonged to Him in order to reach your goals. Very… deplorable. Very… **_**commendable**_**…**"

"You're talking too much!" Jun swirled his gun smoothly, "No matter how much _bullshits_ you are spewing, in the end everything is as simple as this: you either work with us, or not. And if you choose not, then you will meet with a very serious consequence. So, what say you, oh one of the Supreme Demons who refused to reveal his identity?"

Ryuhei slowly lifted his right hand up until it was level with his chest and turned his palm upside down so that the back side of its palm facing the floor. It was just a simple gesture that looked ordinary, but it was enough to alert all four that surrounded him.

"**It is true that We of the Demon kin are strictly forbidden to utter His Holy Words, and as such the act of performing **_**Charge of the God**_** and **_**Charge of the Goddess**_** Invocations is outside our realm of capabilities,**" the voice said, "**But the same rules also applies to you: both of those Holy Invocations are not meant to be spoken by those other than His Loyal Vessels, His Loyal Messengers. If both of them are used other by those who are intended to use them, then it is simply impossible for the Invocations to reach their fullest potential."**

A strange, swirling black orb suddenly appeared on Ryuhei's opened palm. It was small at first, but the size gradually grew bigger and bigger.

The Runes and Glyphs inside that were glowing so brightly before suddenly began to dissipate, and their movements were slowing considerably—it was something that did not escape the attention of the four people besides Ryuhei and the looks on their faces were very telling. For what seemed to be the first time, Shion looked incredibly tense…… even Jun couldn't hide his sense of anxiousness. He could feel a tremendous peculiar energy beginning to gather directly on the black orb Ryuhei formed on his hand, energy that his gut could only describe as "very dangerous."

"**That is why you even need four people to chant the Invocation before, yes**?" the voice said again—Ryuhei's eyes were staring directly towards Shion, "**You knew that it was impossible to perform Charge of the God Invocation just by yourself because you are certainly not one of His Trusted Vessels. With four people each strengthened by the power given from the Contract made with Demons, however—you think you can do it. And do it you have. It was a very dangerous bet, since if the Invocation did not work as you would hope, then you will have to face the consequences of **_**threatening **_**a Supreme Demon to do your selfish bidding. I admired your courage, humans—or, perhaps I should say, I admired your **_**foolishness**_."

"A…are you saying…" Yamada looked panicked, "…T…that the spell _didn't work_?"

Ryuhei did not even spare him a glance, but the voice responded all the same,

"**Oh no, no, you have performed your version of Charge of the God quite admirably**," it spoke, "**I did feel it has an effect on Me. However, the effect is akin to…… how should I put this in terms all of you may understand…**" it stopped for a moment, before saying, "…**A stung by an insect.**"

"_Ugh_," Shion muttered heavily.

She looked distraught, and her face was starting to produce sweat… cold sweat.

It's clear that what occurred in front of her right now was not something that she intended in the first place.

The black orb kept getting bigger and bigger—now it has grown approximately half the size of Ryuhei's entire body.

Then, casually, Ryuhei threw the orb up into the air. As if something suspended it, the orb halted mid-air where it grew even bigger than before. It was an ominous sight—the orb looked like a black hole where nothing inside it could be seen, and at the same time it produced an ear-piercing sound like the sound of someone scratched a chalk board with a very sharp knife multiplied a thousand times.

Suddenly, the orb started to swirl around. The ear-piercing sound stopped, and replaced by something that clearly shocked the four besides Ryuhei.

"……_Whhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyy_…………."

A voice—a human female voice—could be heard from inside the black hole.

"…_Whhhhhyyyy I muuuuust dieeeeeeeeee_……………..!"

Then, another voice came out—this time, a voice of a human male voice.

"……_Uuuuurrrgggghhhhhhaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh_!" it screamed painfully, "…._I'm deaaaadddddddd? Whhhhyyyyy_……….?"

Another voice came out.

…_Whhhhhhhhyyyyy did they kill meeeeeee_……_ whyyyyyyyy_?"

Another came out,

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH_!"

"_WhhhhY I muuuust DIIIIEEEEEEE_…………"

"_…It hurts_…… _help_… _It huuuuuurttttssss_………….."

Another came out. Then another. And another. And another.

They were all clearly human voices. All seemed like they were in an incredible amount of pain and suffering. The voices began to supersede one another, like a terrible symphony of agonizing torture. It was something that wasn't made to be heard by any living beings. It was the music of death.

…

"…W…what the hell……" Reiji muttered—he looked extremely flustered, "…What the hell is that…?"

He looked towards Shion, but he immediately realized that she's in no condition to answer anything right now. He had never seen her lost so much composure—so terribly afraid—like that, and it was a sight that hampered his courage even further.

He looked towards Jun, and although the psychopath appeared to be steadfast, Reiji could tell that he's just as afraid as Shion—if not even more. He stood there, paralyzed, his eyes unbroken from the swirling black orb.

He didn't have to look at Yamada to know that he was the worst from all of them. Even from where he stood right now Reiji could feel that the teacher was extremely anxious and extremely aching to just get the hell out of here.

…

"**This**," the voice said casually, "**Is a Cage of Souls**. **Normally, souls of those that died are immediately sent to the realm of Judgment so that they can be tried accordingly**. **However, just for this very special occasion, I restricted their path so that they can no longer be sent to the place where they should be right now. They are now eternally fated to become Lost Souls…… Souls beyond help, Souls that even Angels will not trouble themselves to touch.**"

"W…what…?" Shion took a step back involuntarily, "S…souls…? W…whose…?"

Then, it hit her. A shocking realization suddenly dawned on her.

"…I… it can't be…" she said, "It's…… _their _souls?"

She waved her hands across the room.

"The souls of the students that just died?" she shouted—Reiji and Jun both gaped in surprise.

"WHAT?" Yamada couldn't hold his shock—he had never definitely this shocked before in his entire life, "THE SOULS OF THESE STUDENTS?"

"T…then," Shion said, "…The ability to constrict souls of the dead… You are… You are…"

"**Does it really matter right now?**" Ryuhei smiled, "**Instead of worrying who I am, I think you should be worried about why I trouble myself making these souls of young humans you just killed forever lost in eternal damnation**. **Shortly put, I just want to put up an entertaining show for all of you to enjoy—think of it as my way of repaying the extravagant show of casting The Charge of the God invocation that all of you shown to me before**."

"What are you trying to pull you freak Demon?" Jun yelled—it was clear that he's extremely agitated by what occurred in front of him right now, "What are you trying to do?"

"**These souls are in the state of unimaginable anger**," the voice said coolly, "**Understandable, since they are robbed of their right to live and now the road of salvation under His care is forever lost for them**. **I wonder what they would have done if they're given the chance to do whatever they want to those that caused all of this in the first place**."

Ryuhei snapped his fingers, and suddenly an extremely loud screams emanated from inside the black orb…screams of many things subjected into an inconceivable amount of pain.

Out of the blue, around twenty bluish ethereal shadows appeared flying out from inside the black orb. They were zooming all around the room, flying erratically all over the place, and all four besides Ryuhei were frantically trying to avoid any one that zoomed towards their direction.

Reiji could have sworn she could see something that resembles a disfigured human face screaming in pain at the front of each of the ethereal shadows, a terribly discomforting sight he wished he didn't see, though he was positive that Shion, Jun, and even Yamada caught the horrifying sight as well.

Ryuhei snapped his fingers again, and as if on cue, all of the shadows began to move to the ceilings near him, all seemingly combined into one, huge ball of shadow. It was suspended in mid-air for a moment, before abruptly it dived down towards the ground in amazing speed.

The impact it made when it hit the ground was tremendous—enough to shake the entire room like an earthquake and caused a huge amount of dust to be released into the air.

…

"Guh," Shion put her hands in front of her eyes to block the dust zooming towards her. Yamada once again fell onto the ground because of the tremor caused by the impact, though this time he was accompanied by both Reiji and Jun, both whom also fell on the ground because they couldn't keep their balance.

All four of them were quick to enact a readied stance, however, because they could sense a terrible danger now rising in front of them.

"…_What the hell_…" Jun sniffed slightly as he—like Shion—also put one of his hand in front of his face to block the dust, "..._What is this horrible smell_……?"

He immediately put his hand over his nose.

An unbearably stink smell suddenly pervaded the atmosphere inside the room, a smell so strong it was more than enough to cause an unprepared adult to pass out. Reiji and Yamada immediately put their hands over their nose to prevent the smell penetrating their noses, though it wasn't particularly effective especially for Yamada who looked ready to pass out any seconds now.

Shion was also putting her hand over her nose to block the amazingly powerful stench, though it didn't stop her to feel somewhat queasy and dizzy because of it.

…

……

It took a while before the dust settled, and what the four of them seen after that was something that definitely would be ingrained inside their brain as the worst memory they have ever encountered in their entire lives.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Yamada screamed in terror as he laid his eyes towards the horrifying sight, "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Ryuhei smiled.

He patted the _thing_ standing in front of him right now. Something that caused Yamada screamed in pure terror while Reiji, Jun, and Shion all quaked in fear.

"**Beautiful, isn't it**?" the voice said.

The voice exploded into satisfied laughter as the _thing_ let out an incredibly powerful roar, shaking the room and the hearts of the four who knew exactly at that moment, that they were within the grasp of Death's ominous claws.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


End file.
